Reading 4

Greg Lynn explains Blob tectonics using corny horror flick allusions and other popular media portrayals of what a “blob” is to explain this complex form of construction. The general being the larger scale universal theories that are placed on the space and the particular being the more specific means of construction and orientation of the individual parts.

            Using the idea of the blob as a collectively complex structure that is also a single unit, Lynn breaks down the principles of this confusing form. Blobs go against normal tectonics and act as detached entities whose form is decided entirely by its surroundings. They interact tremendously with their context. They can absorb things, stick, mold, and are entirely inverted in structure. Continuous surfaces that is both the interior and the exterior. Then the subject of multiplicity and singularity arises. The blob is neither. It is networked and structured as multiple forms, but the form itself is singular in body. To explain these forms through models animation software creates an isomorphic polysurface or a meta-ball (blob) model. The many surfaces are affected by two influences: the zone of fusion and the zone of inflection. Each outside forces working to manipulate the vulnerable shape of the blob. A single surface is then formed by the changing of many surfaces due to the forces on the blob.

            The idea that structures must always be “standing upright” is then challenged. Lynn considers this rule to be “overrated” and encourages architects to stray from this normative response and attempt to conquer the blob. Aside from a few attempts upon the roofs of small structures this notion is still for the most part untouched.

In built form the blob is a difficult task given its material limitations and its need to be flexible and able to make transitions. Reiser + Umemoto and Yoh’s have, however, made considerable advances. Using truss systems to allow for deflection, a change in thickness, a relation to the height of the volume, repetition of surfaces and fluctuations all enhance the blob’s natural abilities of motion.

The Yokohama Port Terminal uses “plan symmetry” in its programmatic organization and massing, but loosens up its structure and becomes more fluid though each connection of slabs. It is an integration of symmetrical plans and flexible connections and sections.